showing several of the curious "blackboys", one of
the various types of grass-trees common throughout Australia.
The name "blackboy" seems to have been suggested by the
blackened appearance of their trunks, which lasts
four years after a bushfire.
Viewed from a distance they resemble a group of Aborigines
carrying spears upright; the 'spears' actually forming a
flower spike that rises to a height of eight or nine feet.
The "blackboy" grows extremely slowly, about a foot a century,
and may reach an age of 1000 years.